1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a picture recorder having a reservation means for reserving and recording according a reservation any program of channels transmitted by way of the space or cable.
2. Description of Related Art
The television broadcasting program is transmitted by way of the space or the cable, namely cable television (CATV) to users.
A user selects a preferred program on the channel and watches the program on a TV set or records the program on a picture recorder. Then, a program is selected referring to a printed program table.
However, when many channels are available, for example 150 channels or like that, it is not easy to search a preferred program on a program table on which programs of, for example, 150 channels are listed.
For easy searching of a desired program, the method described herein under has been used, that is, data of the program table of each channel is inserted in the vertical blanking interval of the video signal of a specific channel so that the insertion does not disturb the television signal of the program, and such data is transmitted to users, a user views the transmitted program table data on a television display, and searches the channel to select the desired program of the channel.
This program table data is referred to as electronic program guide, the electronic program guide can be displayed on a screen for individual categories of program such as sports, news, and movies, and on the display of the electronic program guide on a screen, a user can select a program for receiving and can reserve for recording of a program.
One example of a program guide picture of such an electronic program guide displayed on a television set is shown in FIG. 8. In the figure, the first row shows the title of the program guide picture, "Program Guide" is displayed, the second row shows month, day, and time, the month and day "SEP. 7" and two grids of "8:00 p.m." and "9:00 p.m." are shown. In the third and lower rows, channel names are shown in the left hand side and the names of program which will be broadcasted in the time indicated in the grids and the month and the day shown in the second row are shown in the right side hand correspondingly to the channel names. For example, it is shown that in the channel CSP2, NEWS1 will be broadcasted from 8:00 p.m. for one hour, and NEWS2 will be broadcasted from 9:00 p.m. Similarly, in the channel 26, Famous American will be broadcasted from 8:00 p.m. for 2 hours.
Picture recording is reserved using a program guide picture as described herein above, the detail of the method is described referring to FIG. 9. A program guide picture as shown in FIG. 9A is displayed and the picture is scrolled until a program to be recorded is displayed on the screen. When the program to be recorded is displayed on the screen, a cursor is moved to the row of the program to be recorded by operating the cursor moving key. Then, the display where the cursor is moved to the row changes as shown in FIG. 9A. This change involves the change in display mode such as background color or reverse display.
In the example shown in the figure, a cursor is moved to the row of program City Slickers to be broadcasted in the channel SHOW from 8:00 p.m. on SEP. 7 for 2 hours, and the display mode of the program row changes. Then, by pushing the program reservation button (Rec key) in this condition, the recording of this program is reserved.
Upon pushing the button, the display on the screen changes to the picture for displaying the reserved program as shown in FIG. 9B, the program reservation picture of the program to be broadcasted on the channel SHOW from 8:00 p.m. on SEP. 7 for 2 hours is displayed for confirmation.
When a program is reserved using an electronic program guide on the above-mentioned electronic appliance, if the program desired to be reserved overlaps even over several minutes with a program which had been reserved already, the electronic appliance determines that the program desired to be reserved overlaps with a reserved program, and the electronic appliance rejects the new program reservation which overlaps.
However, when a user wants to confirm a reserved program which is overlap reserved, if the program desired to be reserved is displayed over a plurality of pages of the program guide picture, it is difficult to find the overlapped program.
Otherwise for example, when a program which overlaps with an already reserved program is desired to be reserved, the user once cancels the program reservation of the already reserved program and then operates the new program reservation. Such operations are troublesome for a user. Further, the program reservation using the program guide involves the reservation by program unit, therefore the time of picture recording can not be changed, for example, when the time of picture recording of a program overlaps partially, the desire that the partial program for picture recording which does not overlap, for example only the first half (second half), is recorded can not be accepted. This is a problem of the conventional program reservation system.
An electronic appliance for picture recording is provided usually with a reservation means for reserving a program by setting the picture recording month and day, picture recording time, and picture recording channel. One example is described referring to FIG. 10, FIG. 10 shows a picture display of such a reservation means, in this example picture display, July 6 WED is inputted and displayed as the picture recording month and day, 7:00 a.m. is inputted and displayed as the picture recording starting time, 8:00 a.m. is inputted and displayed as the picture recording ending time, 6 channel is inputted and displayed as the picture recording channel. A user reserves a program when confirming this displayed picture.
As described herein above, some electronic appliances are provided with two reservation means, namely, the first reservation means for reserving a program using the electronic program guide displayed on the television screen and the second reservation means for reserving a program by a method in which a user sets the picture recording month and day, picture recording time, and picture recording channel.
However, the first reservation means and the second reservation means operate reservation independently, therefore, when reservations by two reservation means overlap, the execution of reservation is involved in confusion, the confusion is a problem.
The problem is described in detail referring to FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 herein under. The first and second reservation means are executed by microcomputers respectively, and the job is performed with one period of a vertical synchronizing signal of a video signal as one cycle. The one cycle is about 16.7 ms for NTSC system as shown in FIG. 11A, time shared one period is assigned for execution time of various jobs. For example in FIG. 11B, an example of a job executed by a microcomputer (.mu.con A) for controlling the second reservation means is described, the job executed in the second shared time is a job for communication with the microcomputer (.mu.con B) for controlling the first reservation means, the job executed in the fourth shared time is a job for controlling the execution of the second reservation means.
In other words, when the condition that time passes the starting time of the program reserved by the first reservation means is informed by the job executed in the second shared time, picture recording starts. When the time passes the starting time of the program reserved by the second reservation means, picture recording starts by the job executed in the fourth shared time.
If picture recording is reserved by the first reservation means and the second reservation means for the same month and day and the same time, the electronic appliance performs as described herein under.
When the picture recording starting time comes to the time point shown in the upper portion in FIG. 12A, .mu.con A communicates with .mu.con B by the job after the starting time, and .mu.con A informs .mu.con B that it is the just time of starting time of the program reserved by the first reservation means. Thereby, .mu.con A executes (B) picture recording of the program reserved by the first reservation means.
Then, the control of the second reservation means is executed, by execution of this job, it is found that it is the just time of starting time of the program reserved by the second reservation means, .mu.con A executes (A) picture recording of the program reserved by the second reservation means.
As described herein above, in this case, the recording program is changed at a moment as shown in FIG. 12A, finally the program reserved by the second reservation means is recorded.
Then, the time comes to the time point of picture recording starting time as shown on the upper portion of FIG. 12B, .mu.con A executes control of the second reservation means by the job after the starting time, it is found that it is the just starting time of the program reserved by the second reservation means, and .mu.con A executes (A) picture recording of the program reserved by the second reservation means.
In the next period of vertical synchronizing signal, .mu.con A communicates with .mu.con B, and .mu.con B informs .mu.con A that it is the just starting time of the program reserved by the first reservation means. Thereby, .mu.con A executes (B) picture recording of the program reserved by the first reservation means.
As described herein above, in this case, finally the program reserved by the first reservation means is recorded as shown in FIG. 12B. As described hereinbefore, the reservation means by which the executed picture recording program is reserved is different depending on when the stating time comes, therefore the overlapped reservation causes confusion.
When an electronic appliance accepts a program reservation and then the power supply is turned off, the electronic appliance remains in the condition of reservation waiting, only when the electronic appliance is remained in reservation waiting, the condition of reservation waiting is displayed on the electronic appliance. However, when the program reservation is executed using the electronic program guide, if the electronic appliance is under supply of power, when the time comes to the starting time of reserved program, the picture recording starts. In that case, because the no indication of picture recording reservation is displayed on the screen, the user can not recognize the picture recording reservation, and a recording tape can not be prepared, this is another problem.
The condition that a recording tape is not prepared means such conditions that a recording tape set on the electronic appliance is not ready for recording, that a recording tape with the length insufficient for recording is set, and that a recorded recording tape which does not accept substitute recording is set.
The present invention is accomplished in view of solving these above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic appliance having improved convenience for use when programs reserved using the electronic program guide are overlapped and having performance that, if picture recording reservations by two reservation means overlap, the reservation is executed without confusion.
Further, it is another object of the present invention to provide an electronic appliance which displays the existence of a program reservation when the program is reserved and power supply is on.